Theft Gone Awry
by Randomaximus
Summary: Two Pokémon execute a plan to steal food for their journey. However, on this day, there will be more than berries stolen, much to one Pikachu's dismay.
1. Mauville Pursuit

**Well, what do we have here? I've actually gotten off my lazy butt and wrote a story. I didn't think I had the creativity to do such a thing. I guess I was wrong...**

**Anyway, this has been divided into three parts.** **The second chapter will be posted at a later date. Until that point, please enjoy part one.**

**Disclaimer: Pokémon is owned by Game Freak and Nintendo. The only thing I own in the fanfiction is the idea.**

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It was a rather beautiful day in Mauville City. The sun was shining. The Taillow were chirping…

And in his rather small berry kiosk, Evan was bored out of his mind.

It was like this nearly every day. The only ones who ever bothered to even check his selection were the occasional trainers. Needless to say, his business was at a low. He usually ended up giving his berries to various wild Pokémon at the end of the day. Today seemed as if it was just another day of limited business.

Then, as if to just break the day's monotony, a lone Pikachu walked up to the kiosk, eyeing the berries hungrily. With a small smile, Evan reached over and handed the small creature a Pecha. The Pikachu looked at him warily, but took the berry after a few seconds and began to eat it slowly. Evan's smile grew as he watched the small rodent eat.

However, his smile quickly changed to a frown. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a second Pikachu hurriedly stuffing berries into a small sack.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Evan asked in a gruff tone.

The rodent in question froze at the sound of his voice. It slowly lifted its head until its eyes met Evan's icy glare.

"I suggest you put those back where you found them," Evan warned.

Instead of following the human's suggestion, the Pikachu closed the sack it was holding, placed the end in its mouth and began to flee. Evan ran around to the front of his kiosk to chase the creature. It was then that he noticed the other Pikachu take off in a hurry, with more berries in its possession. Evan had been tricked!

The human looked about ready to rip his hair out. He turned to the kiosk and called out to his employee.

"Bruce! Get out here! We have thieves!"

The teenager simply looked up from checking the inventory. In a sarcastic tone, he responded, "Oh no, not thieves! How will we ever be able to satisfy all of our numerous customers with thieves on the loose? Whatever shall we do boss?"

Evan gave Bruce a look that could dry up Sootopolis itself. "Get your slacker butt out here and help me catch them! Do it and I may just give you a raise."

Bruce's eyes lit up. When in doubt, you could always bribe the boy with cash. "Yes, sir!" he shouted, complete with a salute.

----

Sprinting as fast as his paws could take him, Thunderfoot began making his way through Mauville. His brother told him that the meeting point would be Route 117, which was west of the city. There was just one problem with the instructions.

Thunderfoot had no idea which way was 'west'.

Mentally cursing his lack of directional knowledge, he suddenly remembered an important piece of information his brother gave him: the casino was in the west part of the city. Frantically, Thunderfoot began searching for any buildings that resembled the casino he had seen in a photo a short time ago.

"Oy, you little thief! Get back here!"

Thunderfoot whipped his head around, getting a good look at the gangly teenage human giving chase after him. It seemed that the teenager was slowly gaining on the rodent. Mentally cursing once again, Thunderfoot turned his head back around to focus on running…just in time to see the large crowd of humans he was about to run into.

The Pikachu managed to weave his way around various sets of legs before finally allowing himself to slow his momentum enough to get a look at what the crowd was for. He looked up to see a large building, adorned with many different light fixtures. This must be the casino that signaled the way out of this annoying city.

"There you are, you little furball!"

Startled, Thunderfoot quickly turned around to see the human pushing his way through the crowd. He began to sprint in the opposite direction, making his way out of the crowd in little time due to his size. However, the human teenager soon followed after him, constantly shouting at the electrical rodent.

Nevertheless, Thunderfoot was almost to his destination. Route 117 was within his reach. Only one obstacle remained in his way: a single human, wearing red hooded clothing. Thunderfoot smirked. There was one advantage he had over his pursuer; he was the best jumper he knew of. In mid-sprint, Thunderfoot crouched down, and then went airborne with a mighty leap. With the power in that leap, he'd normally be able to leap the human with ease.

However, he forgot to factor in the bag he still held in his mouth. The rodent, instead of clearing the red-clad human, crashed into its head, knocking both to the ground.

Dazed, Thunderfoot slowly made his way to his paws, getting a good look at the human he crashed into. From the looks of it, it was a male, with short back hair and scruffy-looking facial hair. Thunderfoot then looked down and the human's clothing, noticing a peculiar M-like symbol on the red shirt. He stared at it, noticing it looked almost like two mountains next to each other, with a cave in the center. How strange…

"I have you now, rodent!"

Oh, right. He was supposed to be running.

Thunderfoot took off into another sprint, accidentally stepping on the human's nose as he ran away towards the forest that bordered the route. He failed to notice the red-clad human awaken from the pain of having his nose stepped on.

Said human glared at the escaping Pikachu, taking good note of its escape route. He got to his feet, turning his head to see the now out-of-breath teenager. Smirking, the human started his chase where the teenager left off, pursuing the Pikachu into the forest.

No one, not even a Pokémon, disrespects a member of Team Magma.


	2. Regrouping

**I think I've put off updating this thing for long enough. Procrastination does not a good author make, after all...**

**Anyway, there's been a slight change in my plans. This chapter will not be the last one. I have one more chapter planned for this fanfiction. Don't worry, it won't take almost a month to get Chapter 3 done. I promise.**

**I think I've spoken enough, so I'll let you read the second chapter. This one's a bit heavy on dialogue in comparison to Chapter 1, but I believe you'll enjoy it regardless.**

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After roughly ten more minutes of running, Thunderfoot finally stopped somewhere deep within the woods that surrounded Route 117. He released the bag he was carrying from his jaws and began to catch his breath, finally feeling safe from the gangly human that was chasing him. He soon began looking around to confirm his suspicions, keeping his ears perked for any signs of noise.

After finally assuming that there was no one following him, he sat himself down against a tree to rest. He set the bag of berries at his side, making sure none of the local Pokémon would steal his spoils. Thunderfoot allowed himself to relax, and sighed.

"How does my brother always talk me in to these things?" he asked aloud, not expecting an answer.

"Because you're just that gullible, I guess."

Thunderfoot quickly turned his head to the source of the response. A lone Pikachu sat on the other side of the berry bag, nonchalantly removing various berries and examining them.

"You did pretty good, bro. This thing's almost filled to the brim with berries."

Thunderfoot rolled his eyes at his brother. "Next time, Sparkmind, I get to be the distraction. I'm always the one snatching things, you know?"

"Aw, but you're so good at escaping humans," replied the other Pikachu. "You managed to get away from that human kid pretty easily. I had trouble getting away from the big one."

"Right," Thunderfoot said, diverting his attention to the spoils of the successful theft. "But you know that saying, 'practice makes perfect.'"

Sparkmind gave his brother a dry look. "That is probably one of the corniest bits of advice anyone has ever given me."

"Well, it had to have worked for someone if it's still being used, right?"

"I guess…" Sparkmind simply returned to examining the berry stash.

Thunderfoot, on the other hand, began to examine the surrounding environment. The trees in the area reminded him so much of the Safari Zone. He could practically hear all the sounds of home around him as he looked around. This place seemed so natural, compared to the city that he had just escaped from. Thinking about this began to make him homesick.

"Hey, Thunderfoot, are you awake?"

Thunderfoot was drawn out of his thoughts by his brother's question. He immediately turned to Sparkmind, who was staring at him with a confused look.

"Um, yeah, I'm awake…" Thunderfoot replied.

Sparkmind shook his head and returned to checking berries. "You really need to stop zoning out and start paying attention to the world around you. One of these days, it's going to get you into a load of trouble."

"Right…"

Thunderfoot's gaze fell to the ground, and he began to look somewhat downcast. Sparkmind, noticing this, simply patted his brother's shoulder. His brother was always being too self-conscious, taking even the slightest bit of criticism too harshly.

"Hey, quit being so hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes… Um, speaking of which, remember how I said that this route would take us to that city with the ferry?"

Thunderfoot turned to his brother and nodded, wondering where he was going with that statement. Then, less than a second later, realization struck him.

"We're going the wrong way, aren't we?"

Sparkmind nodded, and picked up a single piece of paper that was lying at his side. Thunderfoot was confused as to how he failed to notice it before, as it was sitting in plain view the entire time. Sparkmind picked up the bag of berries with his free hand and moved it to the other side of his body, giving him room to lay down what appeared to be a map.

"I managed to snatch this from a basket in front of the Pokémon center while I was running," he said, and began to point out a few locations on the map.

"We're somewhere in this area," he stated, pointing to the forest on the south edge of Route 117. He then pointed out the location of Slateport City. "This is where we were supposed to go."

"Great," Thunderfoot said gloomily, realizing the predicament. He then pointed out Mauville City on the map. "That means that we're going to have to go through here again to get to the ferry to Johto, aren't we?"

"Yup," Sparkmind responded with a toothy grin, "And I have just the plan to get us through completely intact."

"Oh no," Thunderfoot refused. "There's no way I'm going back in there. I've already gotten my workout for the next day or so."

He then began to look over the map, wishfully looking for an alternative route. After spotting a possible shortcut, he let out a short, triumphant laugh.

"I've got it," he exclaimed. "This forest connects straight to the route that leads to the ferry city. If we make our way through here, we can make it to the ferry in a shorter amount of time."

Sparkmind stared at his sibling for a few moments, before finally voicing his opinion.

"Alright then, lead the way out of the forest."

The confused look on Thunderfoot's face told him the one thing he could have already guessed. Thunderfoot didn't even know which direction to walk towards.

"Okay then," Sparkmind said, snapping his brother out of his little stupor, "we'll head back to that city and go-"

"No way," Thunderfoot interrupted. "I'm not heading back there. Those two creeps will be looking for us. I think it'll be safer going through the woods."

This began a small feud between the two Pikachu siblings, as they argued over whose plan would be the better one to take.

----

Meanwhile, a short distance away, the human in the red clothing continued sneaking through the trees with the aid of his Mightyena.

He already had the plan formulated in his head. He would attack the Pikachu that knocked him down when it least expected it using his Onix. Then, with the rodent unconscious, he would capture it and force it to do his bidding.

To any other person, his plan would have seemed like too much of a hassle to go through for a simple mistake made by a wild Pokémon. However, in the Magma member's mind, it seemed too little trouble to go through. That rat would pay for its mistake.

----

After the short argument between the Pikachu brothers, Sparkmind began searching through the berry bag. "I think I have a way to choose which plan we'll use."

Thunderfoot glanced confusedly at his brother. "And that would be to…?"

A split second later, Sparkmind pulled two small red berries from the bag and showed them to his sibling. "How about we do a Cheri-eating contest? Whoever can stand the heat longest, we'll use their plan. How does that sound?"

Thunderfoot blinked in confusion. "You do remember that I'm the one with the tolerance for spiciness, don't you?"

"Well, who said that I haven't built up a tolerance to it after a while? After all, 'practice makes perfect,' right?"

Thunderfoot rolled his eyes at his brother, then took a single Cheri from him. "Fine, I guess I'll go ahead and humor you."

Sparkmind smirked, and brought the berry closer to his mouth. "Okay then, on the count of three. One-"

"Oh, and don't cheat by swallowing it whole."

Sparkmind looked at his sibling with a shocked expression. "How'd you know I was going to do that?"

Now, it was Thunderfoot's turn to smirk. "Because you just told me you were going to, you idiot."

Sparkmind's expression quickly turned into a slight scowl at his brother. "Smart-ass… Anyway, count of three. One…"

Thunderfoot smiled, and joined Sparkmind in the countdown. "Two…"

"Three!"

"Iron Tail!"

Thunderfoot barely had time to blink when the large metallic tail made an impact with his body. Sparkmind, thanks to his reflexes, managed to fall to the ground fast enough to dodge the appendage. Thunderfoot flew through the air for a short while before making an impact with the base of a thick oak tree. The collision left a small crater in the tree, within which Thunderfoot was imbedded. He felt large splinters digging into his back, as well as the pain of broken ribs in his chest.

Thunderfoot weakly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, but he could make out the image of his brother running to his aid. He also saw the familiar form of the human he collided with in the city grasping Sparkmind by the scruff of his neck and hauling him into the air. Thunderfoot tried his best to call out to his sibling, but the words couldn't form. He could hear the human laugh will sadistic glee at his catch.

"Well, little rodent, thought you could insult me and get away with it, eh?"

Thunderfoot realized what was going on at that point. The human had mistaken Sparkmind for himself.

Thunderfoot began to pry himself from the wooden crater in an attempt to help his brother. As he pushed, he could feel blood seeping from the wounds made by the various splinters still imbedded in the tree. After a few seconds of effort, he fell to the ground with a thud.

Thunderfoot began pushing himself up and looked up at where the human was located. His vision was getting worse by the second, making the human look more like a red blob. He noticed a large grey blur turning to look at the human. That must have been the Onix that hit him.

"Do I get to 'play' with the rat now, Boss?" the grey blob asked, its tail pointing to the fallen Pikachu.

Thunderfoot felt his consciousness slipping away rapidly. His eyesight grew dark as he laid his head onto the ground. As his brother's screams for help faded from his ears, the human's command still rang clear as he drifted into unconsciousness.

"Kill it, for all I care."


End file.
